Roads, borders and the sand

How to get to Chobe National Park

Name: Chobe National Park
Address: Botswana

Almost every Chobe trip starts in Kasane, the town on the park's north-eastern corner. From there the Riverfront is ten minutes away on tar, and Savuti is a long day of tar and deep sand to the south-west.

If you only want the answer

Get to Kasane first: about 95 km of tar from Victoria Falls, 82 km from Livingstone over the Kazungula Bridge, or Airlink's daily flight from Johannesburg. From Kasane, Sedudu Gate and the Riverfront are 7 km away on tar, while Savuti is about 165 km, 93 km of tar to Kachikau and some 70 km of deep sand beyond, four to five hours in a high-clearance 4x4. From Maun, Savuti is about 200 km and six to seven hours via Mababe Gate (distances routed on 4 October 2026).

Kasane is the hub for Chobe

Kasane sits on the A33 tar road at the park's north-eastern corner, and it does every job a gateway town should: fuel, cash, supermarkets, the DWNP regional office, a government hospital and an international airport. Sedudu Gate, the Riverfront entrance, is 6.8 km from the town centre by road (routed on OpenStreetMap on 4 October 2026), about ten minutes. Kasane Airport is 5.6 km from the centre and about 2.5 km in a straight line from the gate, so a midday arrival can be on the river the same afternoon.

The gates keep the national park hours: 06:00 to 18:30 from 1 April to 30 September, and 05:30 to 19:00 from 1 October to 31 March. You pay at Sedudu in cash, in pula, and the operators' advice is small notes drawn in Kasane the day before. A day visit to the Riverfront needs no booking; staying overnight inside the park needs a confirmed campsite or lodge reservation before you reach the gate.

Fill up in Kasane whatever your plan. There is no fuel inside the park, and on the sand routes to Savuti and Maun one guide lists a single filling station, at Muchenje near Ngoma, about 65 km from Kasane; treat it as a bonus, not a plan. Our Kasane page covers the town errand by errand.

Driving from Victoria Falls or Livingstone to Kasane

Victoria Falls town is about 95 km from Kasane on tar, roughly 1 h 15 of driving plus two border posts; Expert Africa puts the whole trip at about an hour and a half. You leave Zimbabwe and enter Botswana at Kazungula Road, where the Botswana side opens 06:00 to 20:00 under the April 2025 immigration list. From Victoria Falls Airport it is about 114 km, around 1 h 35 at the wheel before the border queue.

From Livingstone the route crosses the Zambezi on the Kazungula Bridge, 923 m long and open since 10 May 2021, with a one-stop border post that runs 06:00 to 22:00. Livingstone town is about 82 km from Kasane and Livingstone Airport about 80 km, a little over an hour of driving plus the border. The old Kazungula ferry still appears on some government and tourism pages; ignore them and use the bridge.

No public bus timetable to Kasane was found. Kasane lodges and Victoria Falls operators sell road transfers, and Mack Air publishes a daily 20-minute Cessna Caravan shuttle between Victoria Falls and Kasane (its page footer is dated 2025, so confirm it still runs). If you are staying in Zambia or Zimbabwe on a KAZA UNIVISA, US$50 for up to 30 days, Zambia's immigration department says it also covers day trips into Botswana through the Kazungula borders. Botswana does not issue that visa; whether you need a Botswana visa depends on your passport.

Chobe driving distances and times

Distances below are routed on OpenStreetMap (OSRM, 4 October 2026) and cross-checked against published figures. The routing engine assumes free-flowing traffic, so it knows nothing about border queues or sand; on the sand legs the times are the ones published by self-drive guides, and where nobody publishes a time we say so.

Leg	Distance	Time	Notes
Kasane to Sedudu Gate	7 km	±10 min	Tar; the Riverfront entrance
Victoria Falls town to Kasane	95 km	±1 h 15 plus borders	Tar; Kazungula Road border, Botswana side 06:00–20:00
Livingstone to Kasane	82 km	±1 h 05 plus border	Tar; Kazungula Bridge one-stop border, 06:00–22:00
Kasane to Ngoma Gate (A33)	50 km	45 min–1 h	Tar transit road through the park; no fee if you stay on it
Kasane to Ihaha (Riverfront tracks)	35–43 km	2.5–4 h game-driving	Sand, with deep soft ridges near Ihaha; 4x4
Kasane to Kachikau	93 km	No published time	Tar: A33 west, then the B334 south
Kachikau to Ghoha Gate	40 km	Slow	Deep sand, the sandiest stretch; lower tyre pressure
Ghoha Gate to Savuti	30–35 km	No published time	Sand
Kasane to Savuti, total	165 km	4–5 h	93 km tar, about 70 km sand; 4x4
Savuti to Mababe Gate	66 km	No published time	Sand; gate staff advise Sand Ridge Road or Marsh Road
Mababe Gate to Khwai village	40 km	No published time	Sand; the link towards Moremi's North Gate
Maun to Mababe Gate	130 km	±3 h	Tar to Shorobe, then gravel and sand
Maun to Savuti, total	200 km	6–7 h	Long sand sections; 4x4
Kasane to Maun on tar (via Nata)	610 km	6–7 h	Kasane–Nata 308 km, Nata–Maun 303 km

Sand-route times from Ostrich Trails (updated 2 July 2025) and chobenationalpark.co.za; Riverfront times from Partir en Liberté (26 August 2026). The 220 km sometimes quoted for Kasane to Savuti most likely follows the longer line along the Riverfront and through Ngoma.

Kasane to Savuti: 93 km of tar, then deep sand

The usual way to Savuti from Kasane is the A33 west through the park to the Ngoma area, then the tarred B334 south to Kachikau village: 93 km of tar. Beyond Kachikau it is about 40 km of deep, loose sand to Ghoha Gate, which Ostrich Trails calls the sandiest stretch of the route, and a further 30 to 35 km of sand to Savuti. One self-drive guide recommends deflating to 1.2 to 1.5 bar for the Ghoha sand. The whole run is about 165 km and four to five hours in a high-clearance 4x4.

The park's other sections hang off the same network. The Linyanti campsite is reached from Savuti along the Linyanti track. The Nogatsaa pans are about 80 km south of Kasane on interior tracks, and the Nogatsaa campsite operator tells campers to be through Sedudu Gate by 15:30 at the latest. The Riverfront tracks from Sedudu to Ihaha and on to Ngoma make a slower, scenic alternative start for Savuti, which probably explains why one guide quotes 220 km for the trip.

Ghoha and Mababe are the gates where staff check your campsite voucher for Savuti and Linyanti. SKL, which runs both campsites, admits nobody without its voucher and a DWNP permit, so print both before you leave Kasane. The park fees themselves are the same at all four gates.

From Maun via Mababe Gate, and the link to Moremi

From Maun the approach is from the south: about 130 km and three hours to Mababe Gate, then 66 km of sand to Savuti, roughly 200 km and six to seven hours in total. Operators say travellers entering on this side pay their park fees in advance at the DWNP office in Maun, on Sir Seretse Khama Road next to the police station, open 07:30 to 16:30 Monday to Saturday and 07:30 to 12:00 on Sundays. At Mababe Gate the staff tell you whether the Sand Ridge Road or the Marsh Road is the better line to Savuti that day.

This is also the hinge of the classic Botswana traverse. From Mababe Gate about 40 km of sand runs west to Khwai village and on to Moremi's North Gate, so a loop of Kasane, Savuti, Khwai, Moremi and Maun links Botswana's only two Category A parks. Both need campsite bookings, and Moremi will not let you in without one; our sister guide covers the Moremi side of the drive.

If you only need to get between the two towns, the tar route via Nata is about 610 km and six to seven hours: 308 km from Kasane to Nata, then 303 km to Maun. The government's travel advice warns that wildlife and livestock make rural driving dangerous at night, and the Kasane to Nata road is a known elephant crossing corridor. Plan to arrive at least an hour before sunset.

Borders and paperwork for a foreign-registered car

Four border posts serve the Chobe area, with Botswana-side hours from the Department of Immigration's April 2025 list. Neighbouring countries keep their own hours on their side, so check both before you plan an early or late crossing. The immigration desk at Kasane Airport works 06:00 to 18:30, which matters if a charter is due in late.

A foreign-registered vehicle pays a P40 National Road Safety Fund levy at the border, valid to the end of December, and needs a Temporary Import Permit from the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (or an ATA carnet). The Motor Vehicle Accident Fund adds a levy valid for 90 days; it publishes no amount in its notice, so carry spare pula. Inside the park a foreign-registered car under 3,500 kg then pays P115 a day, against P30 for a Botswana-registered car such as a Kasane or Maun rental, under the April 2022 tariff.

Kazungula Bridge (Zambia): 06:00–22:00
Kazungula Road (Zimbabwe): 06:00–20:00
Ngoma (Namibia): 07:00–18:00
Pandamatenga (Zimbabwe): 08:00–17:00, about 110 km south of Kasane

Car hire in Kasane, and why you need a 4x4

Kasane has its own 4x4 hire: Chobe 4x4 is based in town and rents equipped Land Cruiser 79s, and OpenStreetMap shows an Avis desk at Kasane Airport (confirm with Avis before you count on it). Maun has several more hire firms, useful if you plan to finish the trip there. Any rental registered in Botswana pays the P30 vehicle fee, not the P115 foreign rate.

An ordinary car reaches Sedudu Gate and drives the A33 transit road, where the regulations set an 80 km/h limit. Past the gates, every operator source treats a high-clearance 4x4 as essential: the Riverfront tracks carry ridges of deep, soft sand near Ihaha, and Savuti is sand from Kachikau onwards. The regulations let the officer in charge sign tracks as 4x4 only and set a 40 km/h limit inside the park, with no driving off designated tracks.

How the seasons change the roads

In the rains, roughly November to April, the black-cotton clay around the Savuti marsh turns slippery and parts of the Savuti to Mababe Marsh Road can become impassable, which is why gate staff steer drivers onto the Sand Ridge Road. The opposite problem arrives in the hot late dry season: the sand ridges on the Savuti approaches are at their deepest and loosest in September and October. No DWNP road bulletin or closure calendar is published, so ask at the gate.

The Riverfront has its own clock. The Chobe floodplain floods from about March to May, pushed back up the river by the Zambezi, and in big years the low-lying Riverfront tracks go under. Botswana's Daily News reported on 8 April 2026 that the Chobe had recorded its highest levels in five years, with no closures announced. Several sources also describe a rule keeping early morning and late afternoon on the Riverfront for licensed operators, with self-drive day visitors entering between 09:00 and 14:30; no DWNP notice confirms it and enforcement is reported as patchy, so ask at the Sedudu window.

What you need for the drive

A high-clearance 4x4 for anything beyond the A33 transit road and the gates.
A confirmed campsite or lodge booking if you are staying overnight inside the park, printed with your DWNP permit.
Pula in cash, small notes: P270 per adult per day for non-residents and P115 or P30 for the vehicle, charged for every calendar day including the day you leave.
Full tanks and jerry cans from Kasane or Maun; there is no fuel in the park.
Water, food and firewood for the whole trip; wood collection is banned in the park, and Ihaha sells none.
Vehicle papers showing the weight: an owner who cannot prove a vehicle is under 3,500 kg can be charged the heavier band.
Time in hand: be through the gate and inside a campsite before closing, 18:30 from April to September and 19:00 from October to March.

Something this page does not answer?

Routes, borders and sand change faster than any page can. If your route does not fit what is written here, ask.

Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.

Nothing on this site sits behind the form. Every figure we have is already on the page.

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Sources

Where to go next

Entry Fees What you pay when you arrive at the gate Map Gates, airstrips and coordinates Lodges & camps Where to sleep once you are in